Alarming Training Myths Exposed
The western world is fatter and sicker and weaker than it has ever been. There are more gyms than there have ever been, and they are open 24 hours a day. More people have done a fitness course or who are personal trainers than there has ever been. And yes, there are more exercise programs, eating plans, Web pages designated to health and fitness, eating and losing weight than it has ever been. More books have been written; more websites and blogs are there. People are talking about health and fitness than it has ever been in the history of all time. So why are we still getting fatter, sicker, weaker and more depressed? Hello!!! What's going on here?
The Health and Fitness Industry is full of training fallacies and myths which are based on nothing more than emotion and divine faith. Training programs should be based on proven scientific principles; not somebody's unfounded emotional opinions or desire to make some quick money!
And maybe it's time to be honest, as fitness professionals, as leaders, as coaches, as parents, as teachers. Isn't it the time to be honest with ourselves and say, "Hey, do I really know what I'm talking about? Am I really giving out the right information to people?"
We have all been in a situation where we have seen somebody do an exercise or they've started an eating plan. We thought to ourselves, well, that's silly. Why would they eat that way or why would they exercise that way? Or that exercise looks dangerous or it seems silly, or how could that possibly work? And yet people are doing it. People are on ridiculous diets, and people are doing silly exercise programs.
And there are fitness professionals who prescribe silly exercises and teach silliness in their classes. We have all seen it. However, we can't change what other people do. What we can do is change what we do. We are responsible for our not only our the health and wellbeing but also for somebody else.
Emotion is the fuel that gives the energy to achieve your goal of transforming your body
-Prabal Arora
Shocking Myths Revealed
I have mentioned some of the more common fallacies below, which I will address one by one:
1. Women get big and bulky muscles when they lift weights
2. Your beautiful, lean, hard muscles will turn to flabby fat if you stop lifting weights
3. Specific exercises are great for toning muscles
4. Specific exercises are great for 'spot reduction' as they burn fat from specific areas
5. For Toning Your body lift low weights and do more repetitions
6. Men who get muscle-bound cannot move around
7. Both men and women should have a different exercise regimen
8. Children should not lift weights
9. Specific exercises will shape a particular muscle
10. Specific exercises will 'cut-up' a muscle
11. Different sections of a Muscle can be trained separately
12. Eat and drink protein powders to build more muscles
13. It is mandatory to take supplements if you want to increase your muscle strength, power and size
14. You can take fat metabolisers, fat burning pills and use cellulite cream to burn unwanted fat
15. If you want to lose weight, you should do Dieting
16. You should stop strength training if you are pregnant
17. If you have Arthritis, you should not lift weights
18. Diabetic patients must not lift weights
19. Only elite athletes get where they are due to great genetics
Let's find out why are all the statements mentioned above are fallacies and myths?
1. Women get big and bulky muscles when they lift weights
Do you wonder why men have bigger muscles than women? Because they have testosterone in a significant amount, which is responsible for human growth and builds muscle mass. Women have oestrogen hormones and don't have testosterone in significant amounts as men have. So, they can't build much muscle mass.
Most of the women will only have the capability of replacing muscles that they lose naturally when they turn 20 years of age. They can hardly put on two kilograms of lean muscle mass more than what their genetics determine. This may occur in a tiny percentage of some fortunate women. Why do I say that only a few women are lucky? Because when they build more lean muscles on their body by doing weight lifting, they have a faster metabolism which means they burn fat faster. They lose weight and experience a significant slowdown of the ageing process.
Every time you lift weight, you compete against yourself and with every extra weight, you build a stronger YOU.
Did you know that the use of anabolic steroids results in enhanced muscle growth because the missing testosterone is injected?
What women see in bodybuilder women is ripped abs, big biceps, triceps and thighs “ it's all because of the anabolic steroids they consume to prepare for the body-building championship. When they stop lifting weights, muscles turn into sagging fat. Under normal circumstances, when you quit strength training, you may again become fat as you lose the muscles you developed; it doesn't turn into sagging fat. It's the weight you put on by not burning calories, and the myth is that muscle is turning into fat.
As you can see in the pictures below, one is a professional bodybuilder, and the other one is a normal woman who exercised and developed a toned and shapely body. The first one took steroids to add more testosterone in her body and lifted very heavyweight to develop muscles, and the other one simply lifted weighted weight to get stronger and have a lean and shapely body. Of course, this helps in losing weight faster than ever.
So many women shared with me that before coming to my training programmes or boot camps, they were fearful that they might not get bulky. But after going through strength training sessions, they realised that their body turned into a fat-burning machine; they did not put on much muscle mass; instead, they achieved a lean and shapely physique.
2. Your beautiful, lean, hard muscles will turn to flabby fat if you stop lifting weights
I had a mid-aged client who told me that she used to do heavy weight lifting during her college days and participated in the power-lifting sport. She was under the impression that after 15 years when she is no more into weight lifting, she has put on extra flab on her body now because she lifted heavyweight in her early twenties.
It's not possible to turn muscles into fat. It's like turning metal into water. You lose your muscles if you stop exercising. It's a natural process. You may put on weight or fat because you lose active muscle tissue. Your energy expenditure decreases as you are no more that much involved in physical activities as you used to be, and it causes fat gain.
So yes, if you stop training, you could get fat, but not because your muscles turn into fat.
You will get fat because
a) You are no more that much active. So calorie intake is more than calorie out.
b) You have lost muscles which causes fat gain “ one cannot physiologically turn into the other!
You can carve your own body; the chisel is in your hand.
- Prabal Arora
3. Specific exercises are great for toning muscles
Toning is a slang term that means low levels of body fat. When you tone your body, you lose fat, and it makes your muscles more visible under the skin. Well, you have to overload your muscles, meaning you need to lift weights to build muscles so that they are big enough to be visible.
However, there is no such thing as untoned muscles. Actually, muscles are active tissues. They do not hang down or hang off your bones. They cannot be 'untoned'. The untoned appearance comes from having too much subcutaneous fat over the muscle (like wearing a doona!) and not having enough muscle under the skin to give your body any form or shape. A proper 'toning' exercise would be to practise your singing skills!
4. Specific exercises are great for 'spot reduction' as they burn fat from specific areas
This is one area that makes me really uncomfortable when I see most of the fitness freaks performing exercises in isolation in the gyms nearby. Throughout my life till the age of 43 years, I had been doing exercises in isolation, such as tricep exercises, shoulder and bicep exercises. The overuse of my joints caused impingement in my shoulders, and I had a tennis elbow for over a year.
I have met many people who are suffering from back pain as they used to do lots of sit-ups and crunches in their home workout or gym workout plan. They call it an ab workout or core workout plan. Even they would go one step further and bifurcate their full ab workout plan into lower, middle and upper ab workout plan. I used to follow the same while I was into martial arts.
Spot reduction exercises promote working a particular body part or muscle to burn fat from the area worked. Unfortunately, this theory falls against all the scientific principles of exercise physiology. It's not our choice to lose fat in a particular area of our body. If you exercised with one leg and not the other one while doing side leg raises, you wouldn't get one fat and the other one thin leg.
It works like the law of physics - calories in = calories out. When you exercise, lift weights, eat less, you are burning more calories than you consume. So fat comes off from all over your body. The reduction of fat depends on your genetic makeup and your general body shape. We are all different, where it comes off and how quickly it varies from individual to individual due to different genetic makeup. Imagine if it was true that fat would come off in the areas where we worked or moved the most, do you think we would have fat on our faces? Don't we move our facial muscles most of the time?
Similarly, we would not have fat on our bottoms, hips and legs too because we use all the muscles of these body parts every day. What about standing, walking, running, cycling, swimming and so on? Fat can only be oxidised (burnt off) aerobically as fat is used as a source of fuel.
This simply means while you are alive, breathing, sleeping, moving or exercising your body uses fat as a fuel source to survive. You burn fat faster from all over your body when you move more, for longer and faster. When you exercise one body part at a time, for example, crunches or side leg raises, it creates a 'burning' feeling or sensation in the muscle which people commonly misinterpret as exploding fat cells; this burning sensation is only a build-up of lactate “ a substance produced by the body when you are working anaerobically, NOT aerobically!
When you are using your anaerobic system to produce the energy, you will be using glycogen (carbohydrate) as the primary source of energy, which means you are NOT burning any significant amounts of fat.
Fat can be compared to petrol in a car if you wish to burn the petrol, you have to start the car, take it out of the garage and drive it to a significant distance. Doing exercises that work one body part at a time, is like going up to the car and continually opening and closing the bonnet “ no fuel burnt, just worn out hinges!
"I have found that common sense is not quite common"
- Prabal Arora
5. For Toning Your body lift Low Weights and do More Repetitions
As you know, muscle tone comes from having adequate amounts of muscle that can be seen under low levels of body fat. Maintaining muscle (women) or building muscle (men) can only happen if the muscle is placed under significant overload (low repetitions). Overload can only come from a regular increase in the loads you are lifting.
As your body gets used to lifting a certain weight, it gets stronger and lifts that weight easily. To create an overload effect, you will need to lift more weight. When you perform the same exercise more times, meaning doing more repetitions, it will force you to endure more weight. The body will be in a position to lift more, but there won't be an overload. Put simply, get stronger, to maintain/build more muscle and to burn fat faster If you are not getting stronger, your body does not have to work harder.
While lifting weight, the measurement of progress is strength. What can't be measured, can't be progressed
“ Prabal Arora
6. Men who get Muscle-bound can not Move Around
It's also a myth. I have friends who don't exercise or visit nearby gyms or personal trainers. They have a concern that if they did heavy weight lifting or dead-lift or squats, their body would become stiff, and they won't be able to move around. Maybe some of you also have the same concern that lifting weights will make you quite big - so big that your excessive size may restrict your joint movements due to the increase in muscle mass between two articulating bones.
This is entirely irrelevant for women “ as even if you are a lucky woman with the genetics to put on 1-2 kgs of muscles, this amount will actually make you smaller. The reason is that more fat is burnt because you have more muscles in your body. So less fat means you will have more energy and you will move around easier. For you guys, most of you will also find it very difficult to put on any more than 5-10 kg of muscle (without drug support).
Just ask men who are strength training regularly and seeing a tiny increase in muscles. If you are one of the genetically gifted males who could put on large amounts of muscle, be sure to balance your strength training with cardiovascular exercise and flexibility training.
7. Both men and women should have a different exercise regimen
Don't men and women have the same functional anatomy and physiology in terms of muscles and exercise response? Don't they have the same musculoskeletal structure? What does that mean? It means that to stimulate physiological adaptations in muscle strength, endurance and power, both men and women require progressive overload.
Therefore, men's and women's exercise regimen, including their strength training programs, should be the same. Having said that, there are no special exercises that women should not do which men do. Similarly, there are no exercises which men should not do that women do. They have the same muscles, and they need to get stronger to survive for a long. We have only one difference here. Males have a higher capacity for muscle hypertrophy (bigger muscles) due to higher hormonal levels.
8. Children should not lift weights
Well, I have seen lots of parents who think that if their children lifted weights, it would impede their growth or it would affect their skeletal. It has been suggested for years that children should avoid lifting extremely heavy weights to prevent damage to their growth plates “ the parts of the bone that are still growing.
Interestingly, there is controversy in the research. Still, there is no published evidence that safe, supervised, controlled strength training causes any damage to the bones, growth plates or muscles of pre-adolescent children. However, maximal and/or repetitive weights is not recommended.
Conversely, there is research that shows positive changes in muscle strength, bone strength, joint stability, posture, sporting performance, injury prevention and self-esteem.
Children achieve the same physiological gains to strength training as adults, except for an increase in muscle size. Why is that so? Because they have not yet developed the same levels of testosterone, the hormone responsible for muscle hypertrophy.
9. Specific exercises will shape a particular muscle
A person's genetics determine the muscle's shape in the body, which is known as the elastic properties of muscle. It is not possible to re-shape a muscle to the desired shape forever by performing a specific type of exercise. By gaining or losing muscles, you can change your body shape for a while only. So we strength train to reach our genetic potential. By exercising you can make a muscle gain size, but a muscle will always return to its resting shape and length.
For instance, if two people follow the same exercise routine over a set period, they won't achieve the same result with the same body shape or achieve the same muscle size.
10. Specific exercises will 'cut-up' a particular muscle
This is the same as promoting the spot reduction theory “ claiming specific exercises burn fat from desired body parts, by performing exercises for those body parts. This is, as previously discussed, physiological nonsense. 'Cutting-up' exercises are generally isolated exercises that create an isolated burn in the desired area, which we know is the build-up of lactate from anaerobic glycolysis “ burning predominately carbohydrate, not fat!
Compound or functional exercises such as push-ups, bench press, dips, lunges, dead-lifts, squats and chin-ups don't cut fat either, but you use more energy to perform those exercises and develop more muscles in comparison to the exercises done in isolation. These compound exercises are big exercises and have more influence in terms of energy expenditure than so-called 'CUTTING UP' or Isolated exercises. By overloading your muscles which means when you lift a heavyweight, you make your muscles stronger, increase your metabolism and your body becomes a fat-burning machine. You develop a lean, shapely, toned and fit body.
11. Different sections of a Muscle can be trained separately
Just like the myth surrounding shaping exercises, this is physiologically impossible. A muscle can not be sectioned off into different parts as all the parts have the same attachments. That whole muscle will contract from the insertion through to its origin.
A muscle fibre can contract either entirely or not at all. When you perform different exercises, they do need a variety of motor unit recruitment patterns; however, this is also generally distributed evenly all over the whole muscle.
For example, pick a chest exercise “ no matter what the exercise is, you will train all of the Pectoralis major muscle as the whole muscle is activated (not the upper, lower or outside bits!). You often hear people talk about exercising the upper or the lower abs “ if there was an upper and lower abdomen, then what are the attachments of the upper abdomen and what are the attachments of the lower abdominals?
I never make my clients do any isolation exercises such as leg curls, leg extensions, triceps extension cable, shoulder press or shoulder lift exercise above the shoulder. As I have mentioned above, how harmful it is for the joints when isolated exercises are performed for years. Whether these are butt exercises or lower ab workout at home, any exercise done in isolation is termed as a small exercise, and these are not safe in the long run.
If something does not make sense, is it nonsense? Food for thought! - Prabal Arora
12. Eat and drink protein powders to build more muscles
I personally took supplements for over 18 years. Hoping that they can add more muscles by drinking protein shakes, eating protein bars, and protein powders, pre-workout and post-workout supplements, I spent thousands of dollars. However, extra protein does not help. Unfortunately, no published research proves that if you eat extra protein more than your body requires, will add extra muscles to your body.
Your body does not need more than 1 to 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight, depending on how much you exercise (lift heavy weight or maybe run a marathon). Of course, muscle is made of protein, and it has 60 to 70% of water too. Our body can consume a certain amount of water. More than that is passed out of the body. The same thing happens in the case of protein. Your body can store a certain amount of protein, and any extra would be oxidised off. If it's not converted into protein, then it's stored as fat and doesn't go into the muscle to increase its size.
Most of the people workout on hope, not on results. What about YOU !!!
- Prabal Arora
13. It is mandatory to take Supplements if you want to Increase your Muscle Strength, Power and Size
Again, there is minimal research which proves that by taking extra supplements which are drug-free will increase your muscle strength or size or even power in your body. The food supplementation, which has shown to have an anabolic effect is carbohydrates.
Simply, eat more quality food which your body can utilise to assist you in training harder. It's been shown that the supplement called 'Creatine monohydrate' helps in muscle growth, but only 50% of people have benefited from it. Moreover, there won't be any added benefit if you don't train sensibly, eat nutritious food, keep yourself hydrated and sleep deep.
You choose what you eat, what you say and what you do. Life is all about making the right choices - Prabal Arora
14. You can take fat metabolisers, fat burning pills and use cellulite cream to get rid of unwanted fat
It's simple wastage of your money on such products. Obesity is a disease, and some people who are overweight they use fat burning pills in the hope that it would help them cut fat and lose weight. Your body uses fat from the fat cells as a source of energy only when it comes to the aerobic energy system. So this process of burning fat starts when you are in an aerobic state. However, it becomes faster in the anaerobic state.
You will find many fat burning supplements on the shelves of shops in the market and online. However, it's not scientifically proven that any one of them can increase the oxidation of fat.
And if you just go with a straight, pure science, cellulite has no scientific base. It originated from the beauty therapy industry. If you have a look at what it's made up of, if you pull it out of your body and have a look at it, it is precisely the same chemical makeup as fat adipose tissue.
It's the outcome of the fat protruding from the skin that is restricted by vertical fibrous bands which keep your skin in place relative to the muscle. As male fibrous muscles are more elongated, they have relatively less cellulite.
So if you apply a cream on your skin, that is water-resistant, will have no physiological effect on lipolysis “ the breakdown and release of fat from the fat cells of your body. In fact, the cause of lipolysis is a complex hormonal response to aerobic exercise and stress.
So if you try to apply cream or take pills to lose fat, it would be like rubbing the bonnet of your car with a cream that melts petrol and putting pills in the petrol tank that burns petrol.
Weight loss is not about what you LOSE, it is about what you GAIN
- Prabal Arora
15. If you want to lose weight, you should do Dieting
The good news is that you don't have to go on a diet if you want to lose weight. Here, I will explain how your body system works when you go on a diet.
Create healthy Eating habits, not restrictions “ My mantra for an enjoyable living for you
- Prabal Arora
Generally, it's found that people who follow a particular diet plan are advised to cut down on carbohydrates and restrict calorie intake, whereby the fact is that carbs expedite the process of metabolism and provide energy to brain and body for their proper functioning. Our body needs the energy to function, and it gets that from the glycogen stored in muscles. When the diet is so low in carbs, glycogen level in muscles becomes too low, and the body starts extracting energy from the fat stored in fat cells and eventually from the muscle's tissues. Now protein in muscles becomes the energy source, and that's how muscle tissues begin to deplete.
Another side effect of this process in the long-term is that you gain more weight due to low metabolic rate, which you experienced. When you go on a diet like this, the enzymes responsible for lipogenesis – storing of fat in the fat cells “ increases in concentration during a diet. This happens mostly in the case of women.
The irony is that when you go on a diet, you complete a diet plan for a particular period and then get back to your regular eating routine. Usually, this happens due to physiological and psychological deprivation. Once you go back to your usual way of eating, you start eating the way you were eating before going on a diet or even more because you deprived yourself of those foods which you love to eat. Now you put on more weight as your intake of calories is more than you burn. You will be fatter as your metabolic rate is low, and there is an alteration in the lysogenetic enzyme concentrations.
After this illustration, do you think it's a good idea to go on a diet? Definitely not. It's not a great way of burning fat in the body as it causes fatigue, headache, nausea and feeling weird.
16. You should Stop Strength training if you are Pregnant
Traditionally, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommended that women should not commence a weight training program during pregnancy but could continue with existing programs. However, this guideline changed in 2002, but obviously, the starting level and training goals should consider pregnancy.
Resistance training maintains muscle tissue and strength throughout the pregnancy, which will decrease the physical demand on the body. It may reduce labour time and enhances the physical recovery from birth.
Medical clearance is recommended, however; ensure that the Doctor or Gynaecologist is up-to-date with all the latest research and information on strength training for pregnancy.
Training intensity should be adjusted accordingly, avoid exercises that put you in a flat back position for long periods and include longer rests between exercises.
Supervision of personal training is strongly recommended for pregnant women maintaining their strength training program.
Physical fitness should be like breathing. If you stop; you die
- Prabal Arora
17. If you have Arthritis, you should not lift weights
Osteoarthritis involves the degeneration of joints. Muscles support joints. Increasing the functional strength and control of the appropriate muscles decreases the stress on joints. Research has shown a significant decrease in joint pain with subjects who participated in a strength training program.
Your exercise program should be adjusted to suit your limitations while establishing the pain-free range of movement and then progressing forward.
Yes, the challenge is BIG, but you are BIGGER than it
- Prabal Arora
18. Diabetic patients must not lift weights
Strength training increases lean muscle tissue which will increase metabolism. This, in turn, increases daily energy expenditure and therefore increases the metabolism of blood sugars and fats. Research has shown that strength training increases the transportation of blood sugars into the muscle cell.
I have mentioned all the great reasons why everyone, especially people with diabetes, should lift weights!
19. Only elite athletes get where they are due to great genetics
Elite athletes have superior genetics. However, there are many other factors involved in developing elite level physiques and performances. The lifestyle required, discipline, nutrition, training time needed, behind the scenes support group such as coaches, dieticians, sports therapists and in some instances even pharmacological factors (drugs) also play a role in the life of the elite.
I will not quit until I build the body I dreamt of
- Prabal Arora
